JFK's American University Peace Speech - working towards the (Nuclear) Test Ban Treaty

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I couldn't figure out how to embed a video.

Yeah, I still wonder about rouge CIA elements re Nov 22, '63.

June, 10, 1964
(Italics are mine) snip/

"Today, should total war ever break out again--no matter how--our two countries would become the primary targets. It is an ironic but accurate fact that the two strongest powers are the two in the most danger of devastation. All we have built, all we have worked for, would be destroyed in the first 24 hours. And even in the cold war, which brings burdens and dangers to so many nations, including this Nation's closest allies--our two countries bear the heaviest burdens. For we are both devoting massive sums of money to weapons that could be better devoted to combating ignorance, poverty, and disease. We are both caught up in a vicious and dangerous cycle in which suspicion on one side breeds suspicion on the other, and new weapons beget counterweapons.

In short, both the United States and its allies, and the Soviet Union and its allies, have a mutually deep interest in a just and genuine peace and in halting the arms race. Agreements to this end are in the interests of the Soviet Union as well as ours--and even the most hostile nations can be relied upon to accept and keep those treaty obligations, and only those treaty obligations, which are in their own interest.

So, let us not be blind to our differences--but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.
"

snip/

"We have also been talking in Geneva about the other first-step measures of arms control designed to limit the intensity of the arms race and to reduce the risks of accidental war. Our primary long range interest in Geneva, however, is general and complete disarmament-- designed to take place by stages, permitting parallel political developments to build the new institutions of peace which would take the place of arms. The pursuit of disarmament has been an effort of this Government since the 1920's. It has been urgently sought by the past three administrations. And however dim the prospects may be today, we intend to continue this effort--to continue it in order that all countries, including our own, can better grasp what the problems and possibilities of disarmament are."

[electric_blue68]

1. K&R

[H2O Man]

2. It ranks with

the greatest American speeches.

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3. It was pretty amazing to read it decades later since I was 10 at the time. A mix of soberness...

considering the issues. Cautiously stepping forward with ideas, and holding out the shining hope of a safer future for the World.

[H2O Man]

4. I tend to

Last edited Sat Nov 23, 2024, 03:41 AM - Edit history (1)

connect it with King's April 4, 1967 "A Time to Break Silence" (aka "Beyond Vietnam" ). I'd add Malcolm X's "Message to the Grass Roots." Curious how they all were killed shortly after these speeches.

[electric_blue68]

5. I remember some of that speech of Dr King's the upset it caused! Don't know that* Malcom X speech. Got an unusual......

for the time experience in relationship to Malcom X.
*(I'm going look that speech up)

So my mom (a Liberal, and anti-racist) would sometimes catch Malcom X's speeches....maybe through a local radio station, perhaps a lower wattage one. She's said how beautifully he spoke about his people, contrasted with how he spoke about white people. This was before his trip to Mecca.

Then she was, I guess, amazed how he changed on meeting amongst many others groups - white Muslims of good consciousness while on his Hauge.

Anyway, after he was assasinated and we lived only about 5 blocks south, 1 block west of where it occured; The Audobon Ballroom. I was ?12. She was upset that it had happened. Not too many white people would say that.

Eta:
Woah, that was something. Just read it. But I understand why he would make a speech like that.

You might be wrong about the timing of Malcom X's speech. I read the full transcript, along w a photo, and it was
dated Nov 10, 1963

[H2O Man]

6. I believe it was

on December 10, 1963. It was one of his speeches in Detroit that was recorded and released on a series of LPs released in the years after his death. I was able to buy a five album set of these many years ago. I could have the wrong month, as I haven't listened to it or (re-)read it in the 1965 collect "Malcolm X Speaks."